The concept of bar code technology was first visualized in the United States around the late 1960s, as a method of automating data collection in the computer industry. However, railroad car tracking and supermarket purchases were two of the earliest and perhaps best know applications of early barcode technology. The railroad industry, with its large number of rail cars moving through switching yards, from many different companies, needed some way of identifying these rail cars quickly. The use of barcodes at track side was thought to be the answer. Similarly, supermarkets wanted a way of tracking inventory as goods passed from vendor to store shelves. Shortly thereafter, common barcodes started appearing on grocery shelves in the early 1970s as UPC code to automate the process of identifying grocery items. Today, barcodes are just about everywhere and are used primarily for identification and inventory management in almost all types of business.
When barcodes were first implemented in business processes, the hope was to automate repetitive processes, reduce human error and increase productivity. More specifically, barcode users wanted to eliminate or minimize the practice of employees manually typing numbers into a keyboard. It was hoped that this could also speed the movement of products through the checkout lines and manage inventory much more efficiently. Nowadays, barcodes and barcode readers are being used in just about every aspect of the retail industry. Barcoding has become one of the most efficient ways to track inventory, determine the status of a package in transit or locate parts in a warehouse.
In much the same manner that barcodes have been used to improve data input, control processors have been used to improve the efficacy of automation and computer controlled processes. Computer Numerical Controls (CNC) have been used to control repetitive operations in a variety of applications. The breadth of CNC use ranges from small job shops to fortune 500 companies. One of the advantages of using CNCs in the process control and automation industry is the minimization of operator intervention. Moreover, the use of CNCs in process automation minimizes operator fatigue, operator error and improves the production of consistent and accurate creation of workpieces. In effect, CNCs have significantly enhanced the control over manufacturing and processing equipment. Another advantage to the use of CNCs is the improved level of operational flexibility in accommodating manufacturing and process control requirements.
The process of providing operational data used by control processors was traditionally coordinated through the manual input of configuration data and program instructions. Configuration parameters were generally established by the CNC manufacturer and conveyed to the end user in the form of paper documents or electronic files. These vendor provided electronic files and paper documents were used by servicing technicians to setup CNCs and communicate with associated hardware such as drives, motors and machine tools. For the most part, CNC configuration as well as CNC programming was a manual effort which required the integration of the CNC with various control system hardware. However, a highly flexible and efficient means of instructing CNC operation has yet to be developed.
Accordingly, there is a need for a means of expediting the configuration and programming requirements of a control processor while minimizing operator intervention and human error. The present invention provides a system and method by which setup or modification of control processor configuration parameters and program instructions are achieved through the use of predefined barcode encoded data.